My love affair with Zelda-- and my Top 5 games from the series.

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Hi its Andy again. This week I wanted to talk about Zelda got its claws under me. Growing up, I never had a NES, I had buddies that had them—made me so jealous. I did get a Gameboy and got really good at Tetris. Some called me the Tetris king. One day I read a GamePro (that’s how kids got videogames info in 1990) and saw the new 16-bit machine from Nintendo, the SNES. I had to have one, but we couldn’t afford an NES, much less a SNES. Two years later I went to a video rental store with my mother and I noticed they were selling three SNES games. I thought that buying one would push my mother’s hand and force her to buy me an SNES-- flawless plan. Now which one should I pick? As it turns out it wasn’t much of a decision. I could only afford one—the one with the gold label called Zelda.

It took me 8 months to get an SNES. I played Super Mario World for weeks. Eventually I got tired of it but didn’t have any other games to play. I remembered about that game I bought, the one I knew nothing about. I finally dusted off the game to give it a shot. I ended up playing the hell out of that the Legend of Zelda a link to the Past. Played it until the cart physically broke. I had to finish the game by gently inserting the circuit board into the system. I got bit by the Zelda bug and I wanted more. Over the years I ended up playing all the Zelda’s (except for the Windwaker). I think this makes me just as qualified as anyone to make a Top 5 list of Zelda games. Everyone and their mother has done this, but mine has a little twist. This list is the top 5 games to play today in 2018. Missing from this list would be classics like Zelda 1 and 2. While both are really good games, they are tough to play for the first time now. Most people that will place both those titles high on a best of list are doing so from a nostalgic perspective. With no further ado, here goes my top 5 Zelda games of all time….to play in 2018.

#5 The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
SS is often maligned in the series as being repetitive and the motion controls are bad mouthed. My thoughts are that those words are from folks that haven’t truly given this gem a chance. The motion controls are the 2nd generation Wii Plus and while the motion is not exactly 1 to 1 as advertised, they are pretty close and more importantly, fun to use. Story wise this is the first game in the Zelda continuity, so the player receives a ton of backstory explaining origins which is really rewarding for longtime fans. SS has great water color like graphics, wonderful gameplay and storytelling. While the player is forced to battle with Demise far too many time. There is little in the whole series that feels as good as jumping on your bird and flying through the sky with the heroic music playing in the background. Here’s hoping the big N re-releases on the switch, in HD, hold the motion controls 😊

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#4 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
Ocarina of Time is commonly seen as the best Zelda game of all time; thus, many will probably be surprised to see it here at number #4 – and its not even the N64 classic! The truth is that the 3DS version is how people remember the N64 version being, sans the rose-colored glasses. Graphics have been cleaned up in such a way that it doesn’t lose its original appeal and you would swear it was the version you played as a kid, but its not. Somehow developer Grezzo was able to get in the players head and pull out all the good memories. They smoothed out mechanics that were once clunky; they even fixed the water temple! Controls were streamlined, and an inventory page was added to the on the touch screen. The Master Quest mode and Boss Challenge were thrown in for good measure.

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#3 The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
For many years A Link to the Past has been my favorite game of all time. I played it once every 2-3 years—from start to finish. Its almost like a favorite meal that you can always come back to and a flood of memories come back. The game opening is still classic, you are sleeping. You hear the rain outside, then suddenly you get a telepathic message from the princess. As your adventure begins you travel through Hyrule, across 3 dungeons solving puzzles killing tons of baddies and bosses. After all that, the player goes to Hyrule Castle to defeat the great wizard Agahnim and instead of seeing the end credits you are tossed into a new dark world with 8+ brand new dungeons. Its at that moment that you realize the game just started. The graphics and music in the game are timeless. This game is truly EPIC. So why is this game not number one? Because BOTW is more than a game, it’s an experience that all Zelda fans should play. A Link Between Worlds does everything that ALTTP does only much better with more mechanics. With all that said, I can’t wait to play it again next year.

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#2 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The world in BOTW is fantastic, even though it has more of a Skyrim feel then a Zelda one sans the glitches and chunkiness. During my 180-hour romp in this game I beat about half of the 120 shrines and left much of the side quest untouched. I could easily do another 100 hours (Although, I have put it down and resumed my real life). Characters are the most developed in the entire series, the races are interesting and distinctive. The world just seems real and huge. I would suggest playing this game last on the list, because this game might ruin you for all Zelda games. It’s that good. Clearly this is the future of Zelda games and the only thing that holds it back from perfection is the lack of traditional dungeons. Maybe we will get them with the sequel, but I don’t want to lose the shrines. They are super cool.

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and number 1 is .....

#1 The Legend of Zelda: A Link between Worlds
An amazing game, it is the epitome of what a Zelda game should be. A true open-ended adventure, ALBT changed the tried and progression system of getting the items you need for a specific dungeon in that dungeon. No longer would you get hook shot at a dungeon knowing full well you would need it to beat that area. Now there is a rental/purchase mechanic for those secondary items. This allows for dungeons to be played in any order. One can play the toughest dungeon first and get annihilated resulting in the player needing to regroup. Speaking of the dungeons, they are probably the second best in the series (behind Twilight Princess) and they really take advantage of the verticality that the 3D capabilities of the system allows. The boss battles are super fun and interesting. Link’s merge ability brings a fresh mechanic to the game that is used to the fullest. Beautiful 3D stereoscopic graphics, an orchestrated reimagining of the classic LTTP soundtrack and the handy use of the bottom touch screen for inventory makes A Link between Worlds the best Zelda game of all time.

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